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A few minutes after Democratic Senator Carl Kruger said he was disgusted and was heading home to Brooklyn, we’re hearing that Bronx Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr. has also left the building. Assuming that Democrats do gavel in for a 6:30 session, they could conceivably be out-voted by Republicans 30-29.

Meanwhile, Republican Leader Dean Skelos has been urging the Democrats to keep working away and not leave town until they pass a set of “reforms” that would give a more even split of resources such as member item money and ways to ensure that back-bench lawmakeres can get their bills on the floor, given enough votes.

Here’s the statement from Skelos:

“We are on the verge of implementing historic reforms that will forever change the way the Senate conducts its business to ensure greater transparency, openness, accountability and a more effective government for the people,” Senator Skelos said. “The reforms that we passed on June 8th, and are looking to build on, must be concluded as soon as possible so we can begin to restore people’s confidence in their government.”

“We are past the point of no return — there is no going back to the old ways where leaders dominated the process, controlled every decision, every bill and dictated to every member,” Senator Skelos said. “The days of powerful leaders keeping the Senators and the public in the dark and treating members of the minority party like irrelevant, second class citizens are over. The rules must be changed so we can move forward with a more open, effective and bipartisan Senate that will benefit everyone in this state.”

The effort by Senate Republicans to dramatically reform the Senate Rules began with the issuance of the Minority Report to the Temporary
Senate Committee on Rules Reforms, Co-Chaired by Senator John Bonacic (R-C-I, Mont Hope). The Minority Report contained a long list of reform recommendations to increase openness and accountability, including: empowering individual Senators to get bills voted on in committee and on the floor; greater public notice for the active list and committee agendas; term limits for legislative leaders and committee chairs; and fair and equitable distribution of resources among members and conferences.

“Openness and transparency will ensure more accountability to taxpayers,” Senator Bonacic said. “In order to restore people’s faith in government, we must shine more light on the legislative process, we must inform and involve the public and we must empower individual Senators so they can better represent the people. Simply put, the result of our reforms will be better government for the people of this state.”

The Minority Report contained many of the reforms that were initially passed on June 8th and continue to be the subject of negotiations to this day.

Additional reforms included new limits on messages of necessity, proportional membership on Senate committees, proportional funding for staff, equal access to Senate services such as mail and printing, and fairer distribution of member items. Senate Republicans also passed reforms to ensure that each bill has a named sponsor, and that plans go forward for a CSPAN-type network for coverage of state legislative proceedings.

“We must change the rules to empower all 62 Senators so their bills can get a fair hearing and a vote, and so every member can have input on everything from the budget, taxes and spending to local legislation,” Senator Skelos said. “We need to ensure that every Senator is treated with respect and fairness and ensure that each one can represent their constituents to the fullest extent possible. The people of this state deserve no less and that’s what our reforms would guarantee. We’ve talked about it enough, we need to get real reform done now.”

About Capitol Confidential

Capitol Confidential gathers the best coverage of New York politics and puts it all together. Each section - Capitol, The State Worker, New York on the Potomac, and Voices - represents a unique facet of the political scene. The Capitol section features coverage from the Times Union Capitol bureau. The State Worker is dedicated to state worker issues. New York on the Potomac offers news of interest to New Yorkers from Washington. And Voices features the best of everything else, pointing you to columnists and bloggers from across the Web.